New smart meters will not provide much consumer benefit, Dalhousie professor says
Posted Oct 24, 2017 05:04:44 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Power will be spending upwards of $133-million installing smart meters in homes to automatically measure how much electricity people consume, but a Dalhousie computer engineering professor says there won't be much benefit to the consumers.
Larry Hughes said the new smart meters will measure the amount of electricity you use over your billing period, but they do not break down the amount of consumption by hour or specific time of day.
It will likely be several years before Nova Scotia Power brings in any discounted rates during low demand times, which would be slightly cheaper over the noon and overnight hours.
Hughes told NEWS 95.7's The Rick Howe Show while the metres may have a more accurate reading than that of an estimate made by someone who comes out to look at your meter, he doesn't think there will be much benefit to the consumer.
“I know people will argue that if you have the meter display in your house, you can then tailor your consumption accordingly,” he said. “But I think most people will just accept the fact that they are using that amount of energy at that point in time.”
Hughes said the metres will enable Nova Scotia Power to collect more data, helping the utility build profiles to determine the amount of electricity used by certain households and the most popular times of consumption.
The utility plans to start their smart meter pilot project next year.
